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Along with Jane Goodall, the renowned primatologist whose work with the chimpanzees of Gombe, Tanzania revolutionized our understanding of these nonhuman primates, Drs. Roger and Deborah Fouts are probably the best-known advocates for the protection and welfare of chimpanzees in the world. For over 30 years, the Foutses have worked with chimpanzees using American Sign Language, revealing how these fascinating creatures who possess over 98 percent of our DNA think. The Foutses have recently been involved with the Great Ape Legal Project, seeking to persuade the U.S. Air Force to retire its chimpanzees to primate sanctuaries and not send them to the discredited medical facilities of Dr. Fred Coulston, who has been fined for numerous violations of the Animal Welfare Act. They have recently traveled to Africa as guests of Dr. Goodall and Dr. Richard Wrangham. Vanessa Alford talked to Deborah Fouts about these trips and the threats facing chimpanzees in the wild. Q: Why did you decide to go to Africa now? A: We went for the first time in 1996. Jane Goodall came to see our facility [at Central Washington University] in November, 1995 and told us that if we were ever going to come to Africa and see the chimps, we had better hurry up and come since their habitat was getting so much smaller. So Roger and I, along with our son and one of our daughters, spent a week at Gombe and then went to different sanctuaries in Uganda and Tanzania. Last January and February we went to Richard Wrangham’s field site in Kibali Forest in Uganda, and spent 42 days there. Q: What are the most pressing issues affecting chimpanzees in the wild? A: It depends on the area. In West Africa, the logging roads have made it very easy to kill a number of chimpanzees for the bushmeat trade. Whereas it used to be difficult to get to these places, now you can just drive out with the loggers and bring back a number of animals. Eating bushmeat has become a fad, like people having turkey for dinner. In Tanzania, the problem is encroaching population. Jane Goodall shows photos of Gombe Stream Reserve where she started her studies, and it was all rainforest canopy as far as you could see. Now, as you come in from Kigoma on the boat, the hillside is completely bare until you reach the sign indicating Gombe, and the forest and trees begin. Then, on the other side, it’s all gone again. So the human population is really pushing into the chimpanzees’ area. In the Kibali Forest, although the chimpanzees don’t have a lot of human predators, they have a terrible snare problem. These are not snares for chimpanzees but for smaller animals. However, a chimpanzee can run through and easily trigger the snare until it is wrapped around either their fingers or their toes. Many chimps have missing fingers or hands down to the wrist. If you were to implement a snare patrol and had one or two people go out and pull those snares up, poachers would eventually go somewhere else. It wouldn’t cost much, only about $5,000. But it takes human power to go out and do it. Richard Wrangham has just gotten a grant from The Jane Goodall Institute, so I think a snare patrol project will get underway next year. But it’s still a very serious problem. Q: Did you conduct any research when you were in Africa? A: The reason we went to the Kabali Forest was to study chimpanzee dialect. As people familiar with Jane Goodall’s work know, there are chimpanzee dialects in the wild. For instance, when they want to be groomed, chimps in the Mahali Mountains, Tanzania, grasp a partner’s hand, and Goodall’s chimps put one arm up. Roger and I know how our chimpanzee family uses American Sign Language. But we know they’re using other, non-verbal communication as well. We are looking at videotapes of our chimpanzees to try and identify individual differences. We gathered data in Gombe, in the Kibali Forest, and Jane Goodall has allowed us to have some of her early 1980s data as well. Last year was a sabbatical year for Roger, so we thought it would be the perfect year to gather our data and begin analyzing. We realize now, however, that this is really a 30-year project. To even figure this out among our five chimpanzees, with whom we’re very familiar, takes a long time. Q: What do you say to students who want to follow your line of research? A: This type of research should never have been started. Washoe [the chimpanzee who was first taught ASL] was an Air Force chimp. Washoe’s mother was shot, and Washoe was kidnapped and raised as a human. We don’t believe in any captive breeding. We believe every chimpanzee in captivity should be allowed to live the fullest life, and that doesn’t mean in the awful five foot-by-five foot metal cages [used in many biomedical research centers]. It means living where they have outdoor access, climbing areas, where there isn’t any biomedical research of any kind. There shouldn’t be any more chimpanzees born in this country. Period. Roger and I really feel that zoos should be sending money, or setting money aside, to make habitats safe in Africa. We have many students who join us with our project. But they don’t ever need to start another project. There are many chimps already in captivity, who need to have enriched environments. From them we can learn a great deal. Vanessa Alford is a new editorial assistant at SATYA.
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